Thank you to American Girl for providing the doll featured in this post.
Celebrate American Girl’s newest BeForever character, Nanea Mitchell, with easy doll and me hibiscus piñatas.
Nanea’s story takes place during and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, showcasing the courage and aloha spirit of a young girl growing up in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1941.
Taking inspiration from the hibiscus flower Nanea wears in her hair, you can create your own doll and me hibiscus piñatas. You’ll need:
- Red Crepe Paper
- Paperboard (Empty Boxes)
- Hibiscus Pattern
- Glue
- Scissors
- Yellow Cardstock
- Masking Tape
- String
You can free-hand the shape of your hibiscus flower, but I did a quick image search and picked out a coloring sheet I liked instead. I resized the coloring sheet image so that I had one flower that was approximately 6 inches wide and one that was approximately 3 inches wide.
Cut out two flower shapes in each size from an empty paperboard box. (I used an empty box of microwave popcorn.)
Cut out strips of cardstock to create the edges of your piñata. Carefully tape around the edges using masking tape to connect your cardstock to the paperboard flower shapes. (I usually use paperboard for the edges, too, when making a piñata, but the curvy flower shape and small size called for something a little more flexible.)
Before completely sealing up your piñata shape, add a loop of string to use for holding or hanging the piñata.
Fold over crepe paper slightly larger than the width of your piñata shape, creating multiple layers. Use scissors to create fringe with your crepe paper. Glue the crepe paper fringe in stripes across the piñata shape on the front and back. On the smaller doll sized pinata, cut the crepe paper in half before creating the fringe.
Once the glue on the fringe has dried on both sides, trim around the edges. Glue a solid strip of crepe paper around the edge of your piñata and trim off any excess.
Glue more fringe around the sides of the piñata to finish things off. Glue down the side fringe as needed to maintain the flower shape.
Cut out yellow hibiscus centers from cardstock and glue into the center of the flower. If you used a coloring sheet as a template when creating your flower shapes you can use this to create the center shapes, too.
Glue the flower centers into place. Once the glue is dry, your doll and me hibiscus piñatas are ready for play!
To celebrate Nanea’s release, American Girl is supporting the American Red Cross and their Service to the Armed Forces mission. From August 21 to December 31, 2017, American Girl will match any customer donation, up to $75,000 maximum, made at americangirl.com or at any American Girl store in the U.S.
Click the photo below to save to Pinterest.
